when artists discovered HTML
Complete the net.art (part 1) tutorial on netnet. In this tutorial we'll be introduced to the net.art movement, who, in the mid 1990s, were among the first artists to migrate their practices over to the new medium of the World Wide Web. We'll also take a close look at the HTML code behind one early piece of net.art by self proclaimed "artivist" (artist + activist), Heath Bunting who was among the first wave of artists to embrace the Web as a space for artistic interventions. His piece King's Cross Phone In (1994), is one of his earliest, and most written about, pieces of "net.art"
In this work, the web was used to transform a commuter hub, King's Cross train station (London), into a venue for social and musical spectacles.
Rachel Greene
Complete the net.art (part 2) tutorial on netnet. For many artists, the Web was a means to an end. As we discussed in the last tutorial, for irational.org (Heath Bunting, Kayle Brandon, Rachel Baker, etc.) it was a tool for "hacktivist" intervention, for others like Shu Lea Cheang it was a new means to "explore the construction and perception of identity" (Tribe/Jana) and for others, like Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher a space to experiment with new forms of collaboration and participatory art. But the Web was also a new medium and for many artists, discovering, and perhaps also defining, what that meant was the most exciting part. What would be the Web's inherent features? it's aesthetics? it's dynamics? it's conventions? tropes? cliches? strengths? weaknesses? In this tutorial we'll look at a couple of different responses to this question by early net artists: jodi.org and "Form Art".
The mistake is nothing wrong, the computer keeps working. Something wrong still works, there's nothing wrong with something wrong.
jodi.org
experiment
Create a netnet project experimenting with HTML. At the end of each HTML tutorial I give suggestions for what these experiments can be, for example:
- Remix the sketch at the end of the HTML Crash Course tutorial by finding other media assets hosted online or uploading your own.
- Remix the sketch at the end of the net.art (part 1) tutorial by creating your own "call to action" or "instruction set". Consider what the Internet (as an open and globally accessible platform) as well as HTML (the browser as a blank canvas) afford you that other spaces might not. How might you leverage this in a call to action (consider other works beyond Kings Cross Phone In covered in this tutorial, for example BorderXing Guide and FoodNet to name just a couple)
- Create your own formal exploration in Web aesthetics like those discussed in the net.art (part 2) tutorial. This could be a formal exploration of HTML elemnts like the "Form Art" works discussed, or it could mean playing with the aesthetics/poetics of code itself (like Mez Breeze or jodi.org)
- Explore netnet's HTML Reference Widget to discover other HTML elements I did not cover in any of the tutorials, consider experimenting with any you find curious or interesting.
- For even more inspiration check out Rhizome.org's Net Art Anthology as well as netartnet.net for other examples of works from the Internet art scene over the years.
Make sure to:
- Stick to HTML only (no CSS or JavaScript). If you want to push up against the limits of the language, feel free to use some of the the now obsolete or "deprecated" elements and attributes (but keep in mind the risks I discuss in the tutorials)
- Keep your indentation clean. It doesn't have to be exactly the way netnet would do it (although your welcome to use it's
tidyCode()
feature), but it should have some rhyme/reason to it.